Communication And Coaching Key To Referee Restructure

Improving communication and the quality of accessible training have been identified as two key motivators for Football Queensland’s restructured Referees Department.

Level 1 accredited referee David Wiebe, who has extensive experience officiating throughout the state, has been appointed to the role of State Referee Development Officer and will be responsible for the overall growth and development of refereeing in Queensland.

Also involved in the Department at Member Federation level are a Referees Administrator and Appointments Officer, with supervisory support from the State Referees Technical Committee.

In cooperation with Zone Referee Development Coordinators, Wiebe will head up the effort to enhance the quality of coaching, assessment and education as one of several Department-wide initiatives.

“Communication is the key. We really need to get those training methods and teaching methods out from FFA,” he said.

“I’ve also got to make sure the training for the Zone Development Officers or the Zone coaches so to speak is up to date as they’re the ones who are going to be out there on the front line teaching these referees what to do.

“To get better referees they need to have better quality coaching and hopefully this is a step in the right direction.”

Part of the push to increase opportunities for referee development will be the creation of talent pools to help strengthen the pathway to the top level.

“We’ve initiated what we call a state talent pool and what we’re going to try to do is initiate a Zones talent pool,” Wiebe explained.

“Some Zones already have it. Brisbane for instance have had that running for quite some time, Sunshine Coast have had that running for the last year and a bit and are really starting to kick that off again this year.

“That’s something I’d like to expand across all the Zones within Queensland.”